Research Grants Program Office

Proof of Concept Program: 2012 Awards

The request for proposals garnered 96 eligible applications, and many more excellent proposals than could be awarded. Proposed projects were required to be within 12 months of commercialization, and have the intellectual property owned by UC, unencumbered, and available for licensing. The proposals underwent a rigorous two-tiered evaluation by scientific peers and private investors, resulting in the selection of 22 outstanding projects (23%), representing six UC campuses and Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. Selected projects were identified as highly innovative, commercially exciting, and likely to benefit California and Californians. The projects span a variety of fields including medicine and medical devices, biotechnology, agriculture and the environment, communications, and electronics. The total UC investment in these projects is $2.6 million.